Mark

Mark - the evangelist; "John whose surname was Mark" (Acts
12:12, 25). Mark (Marcus, Col.
4:10, etc.) was his Roman name, which gradually came to supersede his Jewish name John. He is called John in Acts
13:5, 13, and Mark in
15:39, 2 Tim.
4:11, etc.

He was the son of Mary, a woman apparently of some means and influence, and was probably born in Jerusalem, where his mother resided (Acts
12:12). Of his father we know nothing. He was cousin of Barnabas (Col.
4:10). It was in his mother's house that Peter found "many gathered together praying" when he was released from prison; and it is probable that it was here that he was converted by Peter, who calls him his "son" (1 Pet.
5:13). It is probable that the "young man" spoken of in Mark
14:51, 52 was Mark himself. He is first mentioned in Acts
12:25. He went with Paul and Barnabas on their first journey (about A.D. 47) as their "minister," but from some cause turned back when they reached Perga in Pamphylia (Acts
12:25;
13:13). Three years afterwards a "sharp contention" arose between Paul and Barnabas
(15:36-40), because Paul would not take Mark with him. He, however, was evidently at length reconciled to the apostle, for he was with him in his first imprisonment at Rome (Col.
4:10; Philemon
1:24). At a later period he was with Peter in Babylon (1 Pet.
5:13), then, and for some centuries afterwards, one of the chief seats of Jewish learning; and he was with Timothy in Ephesus when Paul wrote him during his second imprisonment (2 Tim.
4:11). He then disappears from view.